Texas Police Deny Their Own Videos After Teen Dies: Multiple Tasing In Testicles, Threats To Kill Him

Police in Mesquite, Texas are literally denying their actions that were filmed on their own police videos in the death of 18-year-old Graham Dyer, who was handcuffed on Aug. 13, 2013 and tased numerous times.

Dyer, who was suffering from a bad reaction to LSD, was repeatedly tased inside a police car. Police video from inside the car shows officers repeatedly tasing Dyer’s genitals.

In newly-released court filings, however, the officer who threatened to kill Dyer claims that the death threat was actually a “control tactic.”

Dyer’s parents, Kathy and Robert Dyer, fought for four years to get the Mesquite Police Department to release the videos, but the department fought them every inch of the way.

The Mesquite Police Department claimed the dead teen was not convicted of any crimes so they could keep the tapes secret under Texas law.

Dyer’s parents filed a Civll Rights complaint with the FBI, which got a hold of the tapes. Dyers’ parents then filed a Freedom of Information Act with the FBI and got the tapes released, but the FBI did censor the audio and blur the faces of the cops.

The Dyers filed a lawsuit against the police who inflicted physical pain on their son and kept him at a police station for two hours before calling for an ambulance.

A medical examiner claimed that Dyer died from an accidental head trauma from hurling himself around inside the police car.

The police claimed that Dyer was so out of control that he had to be placed a special restraint at the police station, but the video shows Dyer so weak that he is lying on the floor.

In their federal lawsuit against the police officers, Kathy and Robert Dyer noted the videos as proof that the Mesquite police used excessive force on their son, allowed their son to fatally injure himself while in their care, did not seat-belt their son in the police cruiser and did not immediately call for necessary medical help.

In an affidavit, Gafford denied using a Taser in Dyer’s groin area despite the video clearly showing him doing exactly that:

I attempted to apply (my) Taser in a drive stun mode to stop his violent resistance and ended up tasing him in the upper thigh. Although the night vision video camera appears to depict this was in the groin area, it was the upper inner thigh.

Scott also claimed in his affidavit that his “I’m going to kill you” threat really wasn’t a threat:

I used harsh language during that stop out of frustration and also as a control tactic as I have learned that sometimes harsh language will get a person’s attention and achieve some cooperation. Unfortunately, it did not work with Mr. Dyer.

The officers also denied the video evidence of Dyer lying on the ground.

“I and other officers carried him inside as he continued screaming, kicking and thrashing about,” Gafford noted. “While we carried him, we could feel him tensing up and attempting to wriggle free.”

After placing Dyer in a restraint chair for two hours, an officer noticed Dyer was unresponsive and called emergency medical responders. Dyer was finally taken to the Baylor University Medical Center, where he died.